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Thursday, 22 January 2015

As part of the Courage of conviction launch we were joined by education office Jane Dawson of Quakers in Britain who gave a passionate talk about the their work and the continued impact of war in the present day. Here is a copy of the talk:

Events,viewedthroughthe long lensofhistory,cantakeonatexturethatdistances usfromthem.Wetendtothinkthatcertaineventscouldn’thappennow,thatthingshavechanged… One hundred years since WWI, has
anything changed?

SinceworkingontheQuakersinBritainWWIproject, ithasbeencleartomethattherealmoodofthepeople,
a centenary ago, was writtenoutofthenationalmemory.IhadnoideajusthowmuchresistancetherehadbeentoWWI. Could we find ourselves in that position today?On2ndAugust 1914,twodaysbeforeBritainwenttowar,therewasapeacerally, which filled to brimming point, TrafalgarSquare in London.TheManchesterGuardiansaid it was‘thebiggestheldinyears’.
Yet historianshaveledustobelievethecountry,thepeople,werebehindWWI.Howdidthishappen?Thelossoflifeintheearlystagesofthewarmadethegovernmentrealizethatacampaigntowinoverheartsandmindsofthepublicwasneeded.Therewasawaningappetiteforsupportingthewareffort.Youmightbefamiliarwillthe poster ’YourCountryNeeds
You’,butalonger
runningandamoreinsidiouscampaign was embarked on tounderminethosewhowereambivalentoropposedtowar.Everything that wasn’tfor
the war effort wasagainst
it, wasunpatriotic.Advertsinwomen’smagazineclaimedthatpreparingcertainsortsoffoodwasunpatriotic!Anti warleaflets, pamphletsandgatheringswerebanned.In1915aQuaker,EdithEllis,wasimprisonedinHolloway
women’s prisonfordistributingantiwarleaflets.In Manchester the headquarters of The Women’s
International League for Peace and Freedom was raided. Here in Accrington, a
Mrs Tozer led a lively women’s resistance to the wars, she was treated as a
subversive.OneofthemostunpleasantstrandsofthiscampaignwasTheOrderoftheWhiteFeather. Itencouragedwomentohandout
whitefeatherstoyoungmennotinuniform,inthehopeofshamingthemintoenlisting.Thefeathersymbolizedcowardiceandeffeteness–ascornfulstatementthattheywerenotrealmenbecausetheywerenotfighting for thedefenceoftheircountry.Any kind of persuasion based on shame is a
disaster, but this was worse than most. It caused endless heartache and
recrimination. Hundreds of white feathers were given out in error to men who
were on leave from their duties in the army, and as a result the scheme became
unpopular with soldiers. But the people doling out the feathers were
unrepentant.They thought it was better
to make a mistake than risk leaving out some lily-livered shirker.Conscientious objectors, of course, received
feather after feather after feather.The
politician Fenner Brockway, who later went on to come one of the founders of
CND, said in 1914 he had enough white feathers to make fan.Ordinarypeople,whowereagainstWWI,wereisolated,marginalizedandwritten outofthehistorybooks.Thehegemony, or cultural norm,generatedbythetripleauthoritiesoftheestablishedchurch,governmentandmilitary -themachineryofstate
-wascreated by a deliberateseriesofcampaignstounderminefreedomofthoughtandinformation.Todaywemightfeelweareimmunetosuchobviousattemptsatstatepropaganda.Afterallwearefreetoinformourselvesthroughtheinternet,freefromtheheavyweightofstateauthority,freetomakeourownmindsup,wehavetherighttodemonstrateouroppositiontowar.Andyetfornoapparentreason,infactatgreatpersonalcosttoourselves, throughourtaxes,manyofchoosetosupportthegovernmentwhenitwantstogotowar.OfcourseweareallhorrifiedwhenweseeaUKcitizenbeheaded,butarewesooutragedabouttheinnocentchildren dying in Syria as a result of weapons bought with
our money, or by conflicts we know little about.Today is Remembrance Day. Some of us at 11am stood solemnly in
silence to remember those military service personnel who died in the conflicts
of the last 100 years.Nearly 9 thousand
ceramic poppies surround The Tower of London in an hugely popular installation
to mark the British dead.But what would the field of poppies at the Tower of London
look like if it included the global dead of WWI? Soldiers and civilians, allies and enemies –
as opposed to just the UK dead? 19.5million poppies would flow out of the Tower,
along both banks of the Thames as far south-west as Millbank, snaking around
parliament and up the Mall to Buckingham Palace.Whetherweliketothinkourselvessusceptibleornot,propagandaisatworkagain.OverthelastfewyearstherehasbeenasystematiccampaigntoincreasesupportforthemilitaryInthelightofawaningappetiteforpublicspending on war.The governmenthavetargetedthepublicattheirmostsusceptible. Theyoungandvulnerablearereachedbygivingsweetenerstoschoolsandcollegestointroducea‘militaryethos’,whiletherealityofconflictintheclassroomis ignored.Thereisanincreasingpresenceofthemilitaryatemotivenational eventsasajingoisticformoftheatre,normalisingthepresenceofsoldiersin21stCenturyBritain.
TheemphasisofRemembranceDayhasshiftedawayfromits originalpurposeofrememberingthehorrorofwar,to‘supportourtroops’.
Conflatingthese2ideasinthemindsofthepublic. Co-opting this confusion to justify our more
current armed conflicts.Youcanreadmoreabouttheevidencebaseforthisin the Quakers in Britain, ‘Thenewtideofmilitarisation’
http://www.quaker.org.uk/militarism
, whichbasesitsfindings on3governmentpapers;FutureReserves2012,NationalRecognitionofour ArmedForcesandDefenceYouthEngagementReview.Manypeopleareswayedbytheargumentsthat there are somewarsyoujustcan’twin.
They say thesepeople,thesecountries,aresoeviltheyonlyunderstandviolenceandforce; thejustwarargument.I’dliketoconsiderthejustwartheoryforamoment.Developedoverthecenturiesbeginning
with theChristianphilosophers, AugustineofHippoandThomas Aquinas,todefinewhenit was righttogotowarand the
fairestwaystoconductwar.A war is just:

Unfair distribution of the spoils of war after WWI,
led directly to WWII, as the bullied became bullies. Today in the Middle East the horrors we see
are a direct result of unjust divisions made by the super powers of the time. A hundred years later we find ourselves
appalled by the violence, the seeds of which we ourselves sowed at the end of WWI.As we oncemore we
take sides in the region,itwillonly
serve tocontinue thecycleof violenceplayed out in
Israel/Palestine, in theIraqwar and now in Syria. Theseinterventions
have achieved only toincreaseinequality and instability across
theMiddle East. Was WWI the war to end all wars?A strategy topreventtoconflictmight beachievedmoreeffectively
byworkingalongside peoplein theregion
and thosewhohavefled
to thiscountry and understandthe issues most deeply.Today,100yearssincetheoutbreakofWWIhavewelearntfromourmistakes?Wars caused byunequaldistributionsofresourcesandunequalandunjusttreatmentofpeople.Ithinkthoseproblemsremain.Unlessweaddressthesefundamentalproblems,therootsofconflictwillalwaysremain.Isaywaristhecoward’sway;itisanappeasementofthosewhowant a quickfixsolutions.Itiseasiertostartawarthantoendit,andthatadditionalviolenceitselffuelsabloodyanddestructivecycle.Thebitternessandhatredcreatedlastsforgenerations.Suchviolencethreatensusall.

History,ofcoursegivesusthebenefitsofhindsight.VeryfewofustodaywouldbelievethatinthedeathofWWIwasinanywayproportionate.Andeventhe historybookstellusthatresolvingtheconflictsbypeaceful means werebarelyconsidered.WWIwasnotaboutpreventinggreaterviolenceorinjusticeforordinarypeople,butaboutpowerstruggleswithinaEuropeanrulingelite.ItiswellknownthatduringWWIthedevelopmentofnewweaponsofwarwasa directresponsetotheneedtowinthewar,soWWIbecamedefinedbymachine gunsandgas,creatingthe horroroftrenchwar.Warcreatesthedemand to innovateincreasinglymoreabhorrentweaponsofkilling,whicheventuallygave usthenuclear
bombinWWIIandnow pilotless
drones.Today we find the world a precarious place, filled with volatile
conflicts and wars. Manypeoplehaveagreatdealtogainbygoingtowar.ArmsDealersareonlyinterestedinprofit.Ourgovernmentbrokersarmsdealswithregimes,welaterfindourselvesfighting.Warringagainstourownweapons.Western firms, brokered by western governments, supply the heavy
artillery in the Middle East region.

Thursday, 15 January 2015

We are pleased to have recently had the oportunity to take on two new and highly enthusiastic interns, who will be working with us for the next six months. They will be working full time, helping us with ongoing projects and bringing some of their own practises and ideas.

Elly Langlois is joining us all the way from Devon, having just obtained a degree in sculpture at Winchester School of Art.

She has come to In-Situ to further her work exploring the similarities between people. Within an increasingly globalised world, her interests are in how people from very different places can come to similar conclusions, and how people from similar places can come to extremely different ones. Whilst here, Elly's plans are to focus particularly on points of culture clash, as well as points which can be linked, through similarity, to places elsewhere.

w: ellylanglois.co.uk

e: ellylanglois@gmail.co.uk

Hannah Stringer is local to Pendle and has recently attained a BA Hons. degree in fine art at the University of Aberystwyth.

The main focus of interest in her most recent projects has revolved around ideas of happiness and understanding within communities and ourselves, be that through exploring clusters of fictional cannibals, reliant on one another for survival or through interacting with university students and their families, in need of a pop up, fun, creative and recyclable shelter. Over the next six months and beyond she hopes to continue exploring people's ideas of happiness and promoting understanding of local and global issues.